What is the worst Christmas Present you have ever received? [Archive]

Teresa

06-09-2006, 02:26pm

Mine is probably the frog shaped shower radio that I got as a couple of years ago. Why would anyone think we want a huge green frog in our shower so that we can listen to the radio.

I've also had some awful chavvy jewellery from my H's sister.

Puddser

06-09-2006, 02:30pm

that's the worst? :lol:

Doh! I read it completely wrong and thought she said the best present you ever got:doh: :doh:

Reminds me of when I was in secondry school and we had to write an essay in Gaelige about the day we won 20 pounds. Of course I read it comepletely wrong and wrote a three page essay in Gaelige on the day I lost 20 pounds:doh: I still got marks for it though:lol:

My worst present so far was the year I asked my Mam to get me a make up kit like No 7 or something that had loads of different shades and pallets in it. I ended up getting a gift set from M&S which consisted of three pairs of briefs with two lip balms in it:shock:

tinkerbell

06-09-2006, 02:38pm

my auntie bought me a clock shaped like a tea pot for my bedroom when I was 15. But she did get my 3 year old cousin Ben some pegs. 1) She isn't poor and 2) she has 3 kids of her own who get equally shite presents.

Henrietta Figg

06-09-2006, 02:57pm

Hand-knitted Sindy clothes. Without a doubt.

Puddser

06-09-2006, 02:58pm

Hand-knitted Sindy clothes. Without a doubt.

:lol: Love it!

Petrus

06-09-2006, 04:10pm

I got bought a greeny coloured minature table cloth by my grandma when i was 13!!!!!!

CountessDuckula

06-09-2006, 04:21pm

My MIL bought me a scorpion encased in a frame back from Holiday and presented it to me as an Xmas present. I was :shock:

gillyf

06-09-2006, 04:33pm

anything my ex gran mother in law bought me. I'd spend hours choosing her something that was appropriate for her age and tastes and she would spend 10 secs getting me something she liked and no one under the age of 80 would consider lovely. Think polyester blouses with bows, elizabeth arden blue grass perfume to name a few.

MamaJ

06-09-2006, 08:30pm

Ooooh now.....it's a toss up between the size 22 pyjamas my grandmother bought me when I was 8 or the toblerone my Mother bought 3 years ago......(not so bad till I tell you she bought my brother in law a new car:doh: ).

Starlight

06-09-2006, 08:46pm

It's a toss up between the Estee Lauder brush (free with purchase gift) or the 'lovely' place 'cards' for the dinner table. They were identical to the name plaques you used to have for bedroom/bathroom doors (ceramic with pink flowers) and came with a whiteboard marker for writing guests names on :lol: :doh: . Both from my MIL.

Edited to say the Estee Lauder brush was on its own - not with any other Estee Lauder products.

Pancake01

06-09-2006, 08:48pm

This wasn't the worst Christmas present that I've ever received, but it did have to go back to the shop. Last year, DH and I bought each other the same food processor - totally unprompted. He thought he'd made a real boo boo when he saw my face drop when I unwrapped it. He thought he was in real trouble because he'd bought me a house present and not diamonds or something. :lol:

sapahesi

06-09-2006, 10:26pm

When DH and I had been married 3 years, and I'd just announced I was expecting their first grandchild, my MIL bought me a peg bag. Not only that it was one that someone had knitted out of string. It had pegs with it too.

I actually thought it was a joke present when I opened it.....then I realised that it wasn't a joke at all. I wasn't impressed :no:

Fantasseee

06-09-2006, 11:20pm

A 5 litre bottle of screen wash :smile:

Princess Lollipop

07-09-2006, 01:23pm

My DH is notoriously crap at buying me presents but last year I think he surpassed himself :wink: Pink tartan pyjamas and not one but two Jamie Oliver cookbooks.

I wouldn't have minded the cookbooks but DH is such a fussy eater that anything I would have made from the books he would have turned his nose up.

In his defence he reckons that I am really hard to buy for :lol:

sparkliness

07-09-2006, 01:26pm

When i was about 13 my Aunty & Uncle got me a Mr Bean diary for the year about to end. She must have bought it in the January sales.

My Uncle (my Dad's brother) was obviously quite embarrassed by the presents his tightwad wife bought us, and frequently used to bung me a tenner on the doorstep when she wasn't looking :teehee:

August Girl

07-09-2006, 01:30pm

Last year my mom gave me one of those bathroom storage pole things that goes in the corner of the bath. It's yukky! It's still in it's box and it's staying there till I can sneak it to the charity shop.

Miss P

07-09-2006, 01:44pm

Can I just say that threads like these make me feel really sad as I just imagine old people really worrying about buying stuff for "youngsters" or taking time to make stuff only to have their presents sneered at behind their backs :cry:

Where all grown ups are involved and people are just being thoughtless or tight-fisted, well that's another matter all together :grin:

Puck Bunny

07-09-2006, 02:16pm

August Girl

07-09-2006, 02:18pm

:lol: PB, I'm going to put all of Z's toys in food packaging this year:bwahaha:

Puddser

07-09-2006, 02:19pm

I just remembered my mother once bought me a packet of tea! and I was only 6 years old :lol:

For months I was pestering her as to what I was getting for christmas (as you do when you are 6) so in the end my exasparated mother told me I was getting a packet of tea, which she duly wrapped up and placed on the tree - cue me crying my eyes out for 15 minutes, until Mum told me open the tea - there was no tea, but a minature dolly in a pram - cue happy smiling child again.

LOL! That reminds me of a story my Mam told me. Apparently her father used to make a big production out of hiding the toys from Santa and her and her brother would have to find them (they lived in a two bedroom flat so there wasn't that many rooms) One year he hid them so well they couldnt find them for hours. Cue my grandad being woken up on Christmas morning by two hysterical children who thought Santa hadn't come. It tooks ages to calm them down and ruined the whole hide the presents game. That was the last year he did that!

katkinn

07-09-2006, 02:51pm

Not so much a bad present but a fecking thoughtless present from my DH a couple of years ago. I got FIVE cookbooks.

Now yes, I do love cooking but

a) that's not what I asked for,
b) these weren't the sort of cook books that I actually cook from - they were mostly uber posh, french and difficult cordon bleu stuff - Larouse bibles or something (see - haven't even looked at them!!!)
c) he actually worked then NEXT door to Waterstones and I know full well that he bought them late on Christmas Eve as I found the plastic bag under the sink with the receipt in. Was even more fecked off as they cost a sodding fortune
d) the lazy article worked ROUND the corner from Jo Malone, Louise Vuitton and Gucci etc and OPPOSITE Links - he couldn't even be arsed to cross the road :doh:

frog

08-09-2006, 05:09pm

the lazy article worked ROUND the corner from Jo MaloneMen, feh :cry:

I was given a silver chain, much like this one, that I swear you could tow a truck with :brainache: bearing in mind I generally wear very delicately styled jewellery you can imagine I wasn't best impressed! :happyno: http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2428460/Trail/C%24cip%3D42649.Jewellery%2Band%2Bwatches%3EC%24ci p%3D42714.Men%26%2339%3Bs%2Bjewellery%3EC%24cip%3D 42720.Men%26%2339%3Bs%2Bchains.htm

Gemiloch

09-09-2006, 06:38pm

Oooh frog, that's a stunner! Do you keep it in your boot in case you break down and need a tow :teehee:

My uncles wife is notoriously awful at presents and I seem to get the worst ones, over the years she has given me

*brown velour pants size 18 (I was 10 years old!)

*a mans knitted hat with a rugby logo on it (which I know she got for nothing as she works for a company that stiches logos!)

*a packet of paper napkins

*mens gloves which were too big even for my dad

I wonder if she's trying to tell me something :scratchchin: Thankfully my mum suggested charity presents for the extended family a couple of years ago :thumb:

Gemx

WoollyNewty

09-09-2006, 06:53pm

Ohhh without a doubt my SIL (the totally nuts tight one) surpassed herself this year.

She came over for dinner in about APRIL (yes APRIL) and bought over our Christmas presents for the previous year's Christmas (she's too tight to pay postage :yeahright: ) and we opened them in front of her and her fiance.

First of all there was quite an expensive looking cookbook. We were really shocked by her generosity and then we opened it......

... inside the front cover was a beautiful inscription which my OH read out:

'Dear Mrs Woolly-Newty's SIL (well you know what I mean :wink: ), Thank you so much for teaching Elizabeth this term, she has really enjoyed being in your class'.

:shock: :faint: :shock:

YUP - she's a teacher and it was a gift one of her students parents had given her! She'd never noticed the message!

Anyway there was also a box of chocolate covered dried fruit strangely wrapped in sellotape..... I said 'Debbie would you like one?' and she said 'no thanks, I don't like them.......' :yeahright:

I wouldn't care if she was poor but she's got far more spare cash than us and we'd bought her a beautiful leather handbag..... :hissyfit:

(Mind you it was worth it for the laugh and the way that I can bring it up anytime my OH thinks perhaps his sister isn't TOTALLY nuts).

Angie

09-09-2006, 06:58pm

Last christmas my step-mil got me (among other things) a multi pack of Matalan knickers, the sort of which I haven't worn since I was at primary school. I was mortified as :

* I don't think anyone should buy you underwear except your oh, least of all your MIL
* I'm a total underwear snob with a drawer full of matching designer undies. I don't wear big cheap pink cotton pants with little hearts on :hissyfit:

Valentine

09-09-2006, 07:34pm

im very lucky. my family are fab at present buying (fingers crossed) and so are Mr.N's family (also fingers crossed) They all tend to ask what i want and i tell them. No unwanted gifts that way and everybody is happy! I DO have quite a close family though!

redhed

09-09-2006, 07:51pm

these weren't the sort of cook books that I actually cook from - they were mostly uber posh, french and difficult cordon bleu stuff - Larouse bibles or something (see - haven't even looked at them!!!)

Katkinn, if you still don't want your Larousse Gastronomique, I'll take it off your hands! How much do you want for it?

Pretty much every present MIL has ever bought me has been vile. For instance, one year she bought me some soap. OK, soap is a moderately thoughtless gift, but if you happen to know damn well (and I know that she knows iyswim) that someone is violently allergic to soap, it's more than thoughtless, it's malicious. Prior to that, she had bought a really cheap and nasty tablemat set, & another year a very unpleasant plastic necklace (the sort that's £1.99 from the market on Eastenders and we nearly had a permanent rift over me not being grateful enough for it) Then she went to work in B&Q, and since then we tend to get eg large boxes of nails (yes, that was DH's actual christmas present from his mother, a large box of assorted nails. I mention it here because I do most of our DIY so it was in practice a present to me)

WoollyNewty

09-09-2006, 08:15pm

Jeez Red - I thought MY family were mad! :teehee:

Blonde Girl

09-09-2006, 08:36pm

A large box of assorted nails - you really are one lucky girl red!!

My worst was a knicker and bra set in purple see through type material. Sounds bad enough....but I was EIGHT!!!!

I was MORTIFIED and hid it under the sofa and pretended I never got anything off that particular person :oops::oops:

August Girl

09-09-2006, 08:39pm

I'm having such a laugh at these. Cathy, that's :shock: and Woolly your s-i-l cracks me up.

Red, I can't imagine a box of nails being a nice present even for someone who adores DIY :puzzled:

I got bought a bumper book of fairy tales by a distant rellie as their memory of me had somehow frozen in time and they still thought I was as old as when I last saw them but in reality I was 13 and into Nirvana.

WoollyNewty

09-09-2006, 08:46pm

OMG Cathy - sorry but I'm never going to be able to look at you again without imagining you in a see through set of bra and pants....... :eek: :teehee: . Who the HELL bought them for you!!?!?!?

Actually that reminds me my mad Gran bought me a vile vile 'crop top and knicker' set in peach pink with yachts all over it :loco: when I was about 16 and as I unwrapped them in front of my dad and brother she said 'oohhhh Tora Jane (not my real name I hasten to add!) look what it is! Aren't you a big girl now!'.

I didn't want to break it to her that yes I was as I already had 36 DD boobs! I just wanted to crawl into the log basket and disappear!

Spuggy

10-09-2006, 08:16am

Lol - some of these are hilarious!!!

I think the *worst* one (although it was bought in love, so I didn't really mind) was a bottle of Kouros with TEster along the bottom from my Gran - she must have been a at a nearly sale or something and though - 'There's a nice bottle of perfume for Spuggy's christmas'. God love my wee Gran, she's a star.

*Fallen Angel*

10-09-2006, 08:17am

DH's mad aunty gave me an apron and gave him a couple of quid. She gave DH's sister a pair of tights

:lol:

Cheetara

10-09-2006, 10:49am

I got a massive box full of bath salts from my Aunty...

I'm allergic to bath salts :lol:

The same Aunty also bought me a herb garden book and an epilator. I was 10 :loco:

*kate*

10-09-2006, 11:39am

For years my MIL bought me those "totes toasties" slipper socks with rubber non slip sole. I must have done a great job pretending I liked them as she bought me these for 6 years running. Novelty ones with detachable toy polar bears :rolleyes:

DH must have told her I hated them as I get vouchers now :laff:

WiCkEd_WeNcH

10-09-2006, 03:33pm

I will post mine later, I can't now as i have tears streaming down my face from reading this

Puck Bunny

11-09-2006, 11:19am

I will post mine later, I can't now as i have tears streaming down my face from reading this

come on you can't keep us in suspense any longer! :lol:

Reedlet

11-09-2006, 11:46am

One year from Mr Reedlet I got an electric can opener, a food processor and a shoe rack! I know I can be difficult to buy for, but I couldn't help be a little disappointed that there wasn't something more heartfelt. Other than that, my grandma once got me a cd that my sister asked for by mistake. :doh: :lol: Never had the heart to tell her.

WiCkEd_WeNcH

11-09-2006, 02:44pm

come on you can't keep us in suspense any longer! :lol:

A few years ago M-I-L gave me a gift box she made up for me, the box itself was nice, the contents were a bit strange.

cotton wool - useful
nail varnish remover
corn plasters
and...............

pile cream :loco:

She wasn't impressed when I had fits of giggles and she's never brought me a pressie since (but then she doesn't buy OH one either) We now get one of the big tins of roses or something. The lid is selotaped bat one and all the nices gone. It's always half full aswell

Vickytoria

11-09-2006, 02:47pm

O.....K :scratchchin:

i think you win Samiseal

Angie

11-09-2006, 07:46pm

cotton wool - useful
nail varnish remover
corn plasters
and..............

pile cream :loco:

:yeahright:

My hideous multi pack of Matalan knickers looks positively thoughful in comparison now :lol:

veilla

18-09-2006, 03:47pm

For my 18th birthday (my birthday is on Christmas Day, and it was a combined birthday/christmas pressie - so it's allowed!) my auntie who is very rich, but very tight bought me a huge box full of Clarins products. Wow, I thought. Until futher inspection showed that they were all sample sized freebies and had been used. Half were actually empty! :shrug:

Another auntie bought me and my sister matching shell suit type outfits, mine in baby blue and my sisters in sage green. Okay if we were 6 and 10, which was the last time we wore anything matching - but this was last christmas!!

guinness

21-09-2006, 08:13am

:lol: PB, I'm going to put all of Z's toys in food packaging this year:bwahaha:

i know someone who wrapped a box of forero rocher (distinctive box, right?) and when it was opened it was full of sprouts not chocolates! :bwahaha:
GENIUS!!

L66TTY

21-09-2006, 09:24am

These are hilarious now I am all for present recycling but not half used, written on stuff!!

I can remember 2 presents I was most upset about a barbie when I was 11 (and a big tom boy) and a suitcase for Christmas I burst in to tears!! (I was at boarding school at the time and it was intended for my travel to school parents lived in Holland I went to shchool in the UK) It was as if my parents were saying hurry up and go back to school which of course they weren't!!

This year my brother and I got some presents of my parents friends bearing in mind I am 29 and he is 24 they were a pack of books on castles and kings and queens and dinosaurs I think since been recycled to a more thankful 8 year old that they were aimed at!!!

Skerry Berry

21-09-2006, 09:29am

Last year my MIL bought me an apron and a cushion with a picture of a labrador on it. I'm sure if I was 70 and liked frilly houses I would have loved it - am just waiting for the crocheted toilet roll cover this year :lol:

Hungry Hippo

21-09-2006, 02:07pm

I think my worst to date was a paper shredder from my in laws :puzzled:.

Kerzen

21-09-2006, 02:40pm

I got bought a bumper book of fairy tales by a distant rellie as their memory of me had somehow frozen in time and they still thought I was as old as when I last saw them but in reality I was 13 and into Nirvana.

One of my Mum's friends used to do this. I finally said something when I got 'the secret garden' aged 15, now I get book tokens!

I think the worst disapppointment was when I was 9 I asked for an alarm clock because I knew money was really tight for my Mum. That was what i got and it was a very cool alarm clock that crowed like a rooster but it was hard to stay grateful when my wee brothers and sisters unwrapped what they'd really wanted and asked for because it hadn't occurred to them to worry about money.